Condemn the Arrest of All India Fact-finding Team members at Koodankulam - Withdraw the Case and Release all the members unconditionally - Scrap the Nuclear Plant at Koodankulam

Revolutionary Democratic Front strongly condemns the illegal detention and, arrest and slapping of baseless charges on the members of an all-Indian fact finding team to Koodankulam nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu. The members of the team included Varalaxmi (Secretary, Revolutionary Writers' Association, Andhra Pradesh) Hamid, Secretary, Rayalaseema Karmika Samakhya, Dastagiri, student, Priyadharshini (Democratic Students Union, JNU), Keshavan (CPCL. Tamil Nadu), K. Palanisamy (Anti-imperialist Movement), Jagan (Students Uprising Movement for Social Welfare, SUMS), Agradi (Women's Uprising Movement), Pratima (lawyer, Orissa), Damodar and Arvind (Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan, Jharkhand). The team was detained at Nanguneri in the morning of 12th October, which is 20 km away from Koodankulam and does not even fall under the 144 zone which has been declared within 7 km radius of Koodankulam. Yet the police detained them first for "illegal assembly". After a daylong detention, at night, the police framed them under baseless yet draconian charges. They have been booked under sections 143, 188, 194(B), 353,362, 506(i), R/W 17(1) Criminal Law Amendment Act. Some of these charges are nonbailable and the CLA Act in particular is a draconian Act. The team members have been taken to Palayamkottai prison, and will be produced in court on Monday.

While more than hundred people, mainly students gathered in Coimbatore in protest of this brazen illegal arrest of the team, the police ushered in repression on the demonstration and remanded 15 protesters, all of whom are students and members of the organization, Students Uprising Movement for Social Welfare (SUMS).

This deplorable act of repression only brings out the utterly undemocratic and anti-people character of the Indian state as well as the Tamil Nadu state government. The people of Koodankulam have been bravely fighting against the nuclear power plant which has come up in their homes and hearths for months now. The government instead of responding to their just demands and concerns for the immense security risk and the environmental hazard that this plant can cause on the surrounding area, has responded with the most cruel repression on the protesting masses. Their attempt to restrict and repress this fact-finding team also clearly shows how they do not want the people to speak out or even knows about the conditions in Koodankulam or about the valiant movement the people are fighting there. The government is simply trying to intimidate and throttle all voices of solidarity and support to the people fighting against Koodankulam nuclear plant.

We condemn in strongest possible terms this fascist tactics of the state to break larger people's unity with fighting masses. We demand the immediate and unconditional release of the members of the fact-finding team and the students in Coimbatore, while reiterating our larger demand of the scrapping of the nuclear power plant in Koodankulam.